LITR 4333 American
Immigrant Literature
2nd class meeting: Examples of the Immigrant Narrative
discussion leader:
3. Can we celebrate yet criticize the immigrant narrative? What are the potential downsides to these stories? Who is left out? If we're reluctant to criticize, what testimony to power of cultural narrative?
Celebrate: Both "Soap & Water" and "The English Lesson" are popular, pleasant reads. Can this pleasure and populism be related to the American immigrant narrative and the American Dream? Why do we like these stories so much?
Criticize: What potentially dark or disturbing forces may be at work in the story of "The English Lesson," and how does the text avoid highlighting them? In "Soap and Water," is it possible to validate the villains? What cultural values or roles do they represent?
Objective 6. The Immigrant Narrative and Public Education: To register the importance of public education to assimilation.
6a. Free secular
education as a starting point for the American Dream of material
progress. (first rung on the ladder available to all; instruction in
common language; separation from household or ethnic religious traditions)
6b. Teachers of literature, language arts,
and history must
consider a variety of issues relative to immigrant and minority culture
o Should we teach
/ practice
multiculturalism or
assimilation?
What balance between “identity,” “tradition,” and “roots” on one hand,
and “conformity,” “modernization,” and “mobility” on the other?
o How much does literature concern language
instruction and formal mechanics and terminology of literature, and how
much does it concern a student-friendly way to teach culture and social
skills?
o Do home-schooling and bible academies
constitute white resistance to integration, immigration, and
assimilation through a secular, multicultural curriculum?
Question: how does education fit in or enable the American Dream (or not) in today's texts?
Compare dynamics of today's education demographics?
Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water”
[2] She told me that my skin looked oily, my hair unkempt, and my finger-nails sadly neglected. She told me that I was utterly unmindful of the little niceties of the well-groomed lady. She pointed out that my collar did not set evenly; my belt was awry, and there was a lack of freshness in my dress. And she ended with: "Soap and water are cheap. Any one can be clean.”
[8] Miss Whiteside had no particular reason for hounding and persecuting me. Personally, she didn’t give a hang if I was clean or dirty. She was merely one of the agents of clean society, delegated to judge who is fit and who is unfit to teach.
16 college as new religion x 17, 18 wall, x-belong
21 Whiteside - policeman
25 college x-democracy > clas distinctions
32 instructor, woman
34 Miss Van Ness
36 telling story, unutterable
a friend
39 singing
English Lesson
22 Mrs. Hamma travels
2623 tallest person in room
idiom
24 imitate her (mimesis, model)
feeling of control
27 "admirable" > equally > 33
28 NYC ethnic groups
Question: how does education fit in or enable the American Dream (or not) in today's texts?
Compare dynamics of today's education demographics?
Text discussion 1: Soap and Water
obj. 1 immigrant narrative + model minority
1. How does each story embody the immigrant story as an identifiable narrative? What symbols can be identified in and across both stories? (obj. 2)
assimilation?
What symbolizes assimilation? Since symbols can carry multiple meanings, what are some of the extra meanings of the symbols?
[2] She told me that my skin looked oily, my hair unkempt, and my finger-nails sadly neglected. She told me that I was utterly unmindful of the little niceties of the well-groomed lady. She pointed out that my collar did not set evenly; my belt was awry, and there was a lack of freshness in my dress. And she ended with: "Soap and water are cheap. Any one can be clean.”
[8] Miss Whiteside had no particular reason for hounding and persecuting me. Personally, she didn’t give a hang if I was clean or dirty. She was merely one of the agents of clean society, delegated to judge who is fit and who is unfit to teach.
[12] Often as I stood at my board at the laundry, I thought of Miss Whiteside, and her clean world, clothed in the snowy shirt-waists I had ironed. I was thinking—I, soaking in the foul vapors of the steaming laundry, I, with my dirty, tired hands, I am ironing the clean, immaculate shirt-waists of clean, immaculate society. I, the unclean one, am actually fashioning the pedestal of their cleanliness, from which they reach down, hoping to lift me to the height that I have created for them.
[17] At last I came to college. I rushed for it with the outstretched arms of youth’s aching hunger to give and take of life’s deepest and highest, and I came against the solid wall of the well-fed, well-dressed world—the frigid whitewashed wall of cleanliness.
[31] But to whom could I speak? The people in the laundry? They never understood me. They had a grudge against me because I left them when I tried to work myself up. Could I speak to the college people? What did these icebergs of convention know about the vital things of the heart?
Poetry Presentation: Papaleo, American Dream: First Report
Obj. 2: stages of immigrant narrative
immigrant generations
Question: Where in the poem do you see the stages of the immigrant narrative?
How do different generations react to immigration?
Objective 3. To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative—or, American Dream versus American Nightmare:
· Differences between immigrants and minorities:
Identify the immigrant narrative
Other places?
Where does the minority narrative appear in today's readings?
“English Lesson”
27 NYC, ethnic groups > Dutch (x-Indians)
26 conflict between immigrants
25 Diego Torres as Hispanic / Afro-Caribbean
Dominican Republic
Dominant culture moment(s)
Miss Whiteside 1, 2
Soap and Water 17
34 Miss Van Ness
39 identification of "America" with its representative? No separation
Mrs. Hamma speaks inclusively, sensitive to class differences, esp. Europe
“Soap and Water”
106 slavery [how true? Metaphor or fact?]
Summary: The immigrant narrative doesn't exist entirely independently of the minority narrative, but defines itself against the minority narrative: we-they, etc.
Soap and Water”
106 slavery [how true? Metaphor or fact?]
Summary: The immigrant narrative doesn't exist entirely independently of the minority narrative, but defines itself against the minority narrative: we-they, etc.
2 upbeat fiction narratives ("Soap and Water" & "The English Class") representing generally sunny side of Immigrant Story / American Dream
“English Lesson”
22 Mrs. Hamma < grandparents from Germany—poor immigrants, work way up
24 improve my position
25 in search of a better future
25 classroom = America
31 improving yourselves
31 [class as second immigration]
“Soap and Water”
107 clothed in shirtwaists I ironed—fashioning their pedestal (cf. “cleaning toilets” in “English lesson”
109 dreams of America > shattered > deathless faith
109 people in laundry, grudge against me, left them
110 tied and bound > untied, freed
What are attractions? What are hidden costs?
In literature you don't just learn "affirmation" but "criticism."
Therefore we don't just celebrate the immigrant narrative, but we criticize it.
To criticize doesn't mean tearing it down but continuing to learn instead of stopping at some smiley moment.
"Soap and Water"
109 people in laundry, grudge against me, left them
"English Lesson"
30 Rudi’s ambivalence re gender roles
30 x-help of man, dependent
Anchee Min (1957- )
novelist and memoirist
193 Red Guards, actor in propaganda films
Status reduced > apply to universities in U.S. (friend
actress Joan Chen)
1960-80 Chinese immigration totals double every decade
Students and professionals
ESL
194
Red
Azalea,
The Cooked Seed
Education > acculturation + student status
American race relations
194 my cousin, my aunt’s son
Mandarin x Cantonese
155 confessed I was guilt, ready to accept punishment
> Debt, borrow more from aunt
deadpan
Takisha, my first American friend
Hot water 24 hours, a princess
Own desk and closet
Laughter, loud knock, dark-skinned person
196 African freedom fighter . . . breathing sculpture
A cripple, didn’t act like a handicapped person
Alabama
Don’t look at your book. Look at me.
197 home – motherland
Accepted me without reservation
China: hung but don’t die
198 Takisha studies to be doctor, cure mother
English sentence structure
199 couldn’t waste any time
200 no English, no job
English class, students from all over world
Black people looked alike, as did whites and Hispanics
To them, Oriental people all looked the same
201 unsatisfied by the speed of the teaching
Only one who really drilled at grammar
202
[free association;
fnf internality]
“excuse me” very useful > friendliest looks
x-students do the teaching . . . language cripples
203 like a parrot ;-)
African b. Germany > France
Japan? China? > silence
204 her original story was lost
205
Kate – Esmeralda? . . . cover girl. [Esmeralda from
Hunchback of
Notre Dame?]
Brightest eyes, worry-free smile, trusting and child-like
206 x-suffered any hardship
Takisha x-Kate: “She is rich.” Room to herself + TV
207 real American classroom? > business marketing
Pretend you do speak English
“salad”
208 share my salad . . . your first American experience
Speed up learning English > TV: Mister Rogers
Withdraw from English tutorial > hour with Kate
209 Takisha visibly upset
Share
American history:
slave
210 no idea who Mao was
Differences between African blacks and American blacks
211 fight for the same freedom?
MLK > death showed American society evil
Takisha: “It is.”
212 ask Takisha if Dr. King had achieved his dream
I am not a slave, but—
What it’s like to be owned, never understand
In
fact, I didn’t know what it was like
not to be
owned.
In China . . . one never owned oneself
Takisha too provoked to come out of her own world.
213 government run by all colors
What that had to do with Kate
Poor and lower classes took over government
Being illiterate became glorious
214 hospital operating tables
Good things about poor people being in control?
215 grandmother with bound feet
No difference between old and new society
(Old notes from previous courses)
“Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited”
159
they x
patriots
159 x American Dream
160 racial tension
161 central myth: blacks with own kind (refer to assimilation)
“The fact is . . . “
161 1952: 50% Jewish, 50% Italian
161 What would they do if blacks moved into Bensonhurst? "Move." (In other words, assimilation doesn't apply here)
162 Joan Smith
163 out of ghetto / school as jungle
163 put a wall around it
167 x-to house
immigrant narrative/American Dream & variations as guide to different cultural groupings in USA
|
minority culture |
minority or immigrant? |
immigrant culture |
dominant culture |
|
| ethnic groups | Native Americans, African Americans | esp. Mexican Americans, but also other Hispanics; Caribbean immigrants of African descent, esp. Haitians but also Dominicans | e. g., Italian Americans, Chinese Americans | Northern, Western Europeans, esp. British but also Germans, maybe others (Jews? Japanese?) |
| original relation with USA / New World | forced participation | mixed feelings & history | voluntary participation | founding of culture; "their idea" |
| assimilation? | separate ethnic identity continues | Which prevails? minority separation or immigrant assimilation? (Sometimes "upward" vs. "downward" assimilation) | ethnic identity decreases over generations, though may be partially asserted or recovered (esp. religion, but not always) | Original settlers don't assimilate to Indian culture; expect others to assimilate to them |
| other issues | African Americans: "The Dream" instead of "American Dream"; internal immigration | lifestyle: plain, reserved; upper class immigrants often leave because of political or religious persecution? (i. e., they may already be educated and up the class ladder; cf. Cuban Americans, Pilgrims) |
| representatives from texts |
minority culture |
minority or immigrant? |
immigrant culture |
dominant culture |
| "English Lesson" | 28 Indians not in NY history | Diego Torres | William, Lali, Mr. Fong, Aldo Fabrizi | Prof. Paczkowski, Mrs. Hammas |
| “Soap and Water” | narrator in sweatshop | narrator | Dean Whiteside | |
| “Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited” | ||||
| “Report from the Bahamas” | ||||
Extended family > nuclear family, individual
Traditional gender roles > "person"
31 Rudi’s ambivalence re gender roles
31 x-help of man, dependent
31 [class as second immigration]
What do immigrants think they'll get?
Old country but richer?
Richer requires unceasing change.
25 classroom = America
public education as leg up
class ladder
Nurturers or gatekeepers?
“English Lesson”
21 Mrs. Hamma: he or she, for all (inclusive language)
25 classroom = America
26-7 professor of music; wife prof of economics + of Jewish parents
“Soap and Water”
105 Dean Whiteside
106 tyranny of their culture; fit and unfit to teach
107 illusion of college
[college as class?]
A place where I didn’t belong
109 college, clothes > class distinctions
“Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited”
161 teacher: Italian girl smart?
162 teacher
162 redemption. We believed
fnf in "Going
Home"
159 fictions / truth
fictions: picturesque, compelling
160 facts, truth from fiction + press
161 central myth: blacks with own kind
“The fact is . . . “
164 playing James Caan playing Sonny
165 This fortress was my womb; born here
love this place, but get the facts
x-facts > blessing
168 narrator / character: somebody to hate
immigrant story as one of opportunity
old world of oppression, inequality > new world of liberation, equality
Darker nonfiction version: "Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited"
159: American Dream, but who believes?
169 " . . . In America, the future belongs to you . . . America's promise to you. The dreams you dream, the hope you have for yourself and for others, will be realized. . . . They will be yours if you want them hard enough and if you think, work, and plan for them. . . . It will be yours . . . ."
How is it darker?
Arriving in promised land isn't end of story--things keep changing unimaginably
161 "It is inconceivable to most Bensonhurst Italians . . . that anybody would not want to stay 'with his own kind.'"
But just as the immigrant disrupted order by leaving the Old World home, the New World home is constantly disrupted, challenged, or abandoned.
fiction-nonfiction dialogue
(in syllabus at bottom of page 5)
Special Literary Objective 9. To distinguish fictional and non-fictional modes of the immigrant narrative & poetic expressions of the immigrant and minority narratives.
9a. How can we tell whether we're reading fiction or nonfiction? What “markers” or signs of difference both in and outside the text alert the reader that the narrative is either fictional or non-fictional? Are these signs always accurate?
9b. How much may fiction and nonfiction cross or overlap? (Genre-bending.)
Why important?
Courses in multicultural literature provide a forum for discussing social issues that otherwise don't get talked about--all well and good.
But potential downside: by emphasizing social and cultural issues, we de-emphasize literary or formal issues
Both matter--not necessarily two separate things
The main meeting of social-cultural and literary-formal in our course is through narrative:
social-cultural:
What kind of a story do people tell about themselves?--cultural pride, identity issues, rights, oppression and liberation, and more--Good for everyone to have a voice, but what if your voice or identity isn't the same? How can you connect to a story if it's not about you?
> literary, formal, style issues:
What is a story, how does it work, what are its parts? How can you tell where it works and doesn't just by listening to it or reading it? How does it draw you in or drive you away?--these are formal issues, a place where different identities can agree to meet
Stories are basic to human identity, but the border between fiction and nonfiction is much more subtle and complex--like a porous membrane, a border between two domains but not exclusive
Why's it matter?
In past generation, autobiography or "memoir" has become a popular genre for serious literature.
Arguments break out over whether these memoirs cross the border from nonfiction or fact into fiction, with more questions following.
Most of us think we know the difference--
Nonfiction?
Fiction?
But the two types of literature overlap considerably
The immigrant or minority narratives can be told in either fiction or nonfiction--the narrative is still operative either way
Special Literary Objective 9. To distinguish fictional and non-fictional modes of the immigrant narrative & poetic expressions of the immigrant and minority narratives.
9a. How can we tell whether we're reading fiction or nonfiction? What “markers” or signs of difference both in and outside the text alert the reader that the narrative is either fictional or non-fictional? Are these signs always accurate?
9b. How much may fiction and nonfiction cross or overlap? (Genre-bending.)
Instructor's sample fiction-nonfiction dialogue